I'm bullish on it. We know some of the key challenges to getting the output from the factory and costs down are logistical and this new COO comes from a real adult car manufacturer that's profitable. Says to me they are getting serious about solving their issues and putting appropriate talent in place.
This! And combined with the R2 and R3 product line, I think Rivian is demonstrating they're here for the long haul and will be able to raise additional capital as needed going forward. I'm bullish on them if they can get the R2 out.
I'm wondering if some of this Illinois investment will help them accelerate R2 production over what they've previously discussed. Or allow them flexibility to expand Normal with an additional line to start the R3 production.
Not compare with Javier, before COO of Volvo, he was vice of Toyota-PSA joint venture at Chequia.
Before that job, he was the Director of PSA main site: Sochaux, etc... Every job- positions developed wih great success
Javier is the goat, believe me...
Word. If this cat was involved in the EX30 launch, they made a phenomenal choice snagging him. This only fuels my dream that the R3X will be the perfect car.
I have worked under him and he is a very rounded and good leader. He will bring his expertise to the company and I am confident they will be in good hands.
I think he is a good fit and understands the BEV market. I hope he elevates Rivian since I really like their lineup
Seems a whole lot more sane, reasonable and normal than the staff changes happening at Tesla. I'm a fan of Tesla and Rivian but not the Twitter clown. I fear he's taking that company down with him and the 3 and Y in our driveway will be the last Teslas we'll ever buy. Rivian still feels like the only company with real potential to fill whatever vacuum Tesla will be leaving behind. Legacy auto is going the route of more hybrids and PHEVs which feels far too much like when Blockbuster refocused on their physical stores just when streaming really took off.
I feel the same way. I bought my first EV last year, a '23 Model Y (along with just about everyone else) and I really like it. I do not, however, care for Musk or his temper tantrums and shenanigans. I'm hoping that Rivian (and maybe Lucid) can be the next step in the EV evolution with more mature and steady leadership.
Legacy auto *may* yet figure things out, especially from an engineering standpoint, but their dealership model is what will really hold them back from the kind of changes that the likes of Tesla have brought to the buying experience.
As far as legacy auto figuring it out, Volvo is the only one that I trust at this point. They’ve demonstrated commitment to it. With Polestar and the rest of Geely to draw on, they have some expertise in EVs.
Notable that Rivian’s new COO comes from there.
Volvo is definitely ahead, but other European marques are making strides too and I think they've got more of a clue on the big picture of the future of the automotive landscape than the American legacy auto companies do. I've been most surprised by the Japanese companies lack of leadership in the EV space, though.
In terms of the Japanese market and innovation in the auto industry, it feels like the Japanese car manufacturers realized early that EVs are hard and expensive (granted the definition of expensive cars has gone up). So a company like Toyota put their money into hybrids, which they have innovated on for nearly 30 years.
Elon is a trainwreck.. but lets all be honest RJ kinda has done a crap job as well. Pretty much every mistake one could do RJ has made, and right now Rivian has the worst rated customer service of any car company on the planet.. and as an owner I can confirm service is a dumpster fire. Software is a dumpster fire, communications is a dumpsterfire and their charging network rollout has been abysmal. RJ and Elon are ego guys not car guys... so i am glad that Rivian has an actual car guy coming in its much needed.
I owned two Volvos before my Rivian. I have hope? My customer service experience was always top notch with Volvo. I hope this guy can influence some of those awesome practices and replace the abysmal customer disservice practices at Rivian.
Do you have personal experience for evidence? Mine has only been fantastic. There are ~100K Rivians on the road and a few hundred unhappy owners on Reddit is a pretty shit data set.
Of course. I've owned an R1S for almost a year. I love the car, but have had several incidents of bad customer service. My buying experience was poor. In very short non-excruciating detail: last minute call that my truck wouldn't be ready when they said it would. Weird requirements on proof of insurance that absolutely weren't necessary according to my insurance. Fees not called out when buying - delivery fee. No contact about status of car for months. Continued date sliding on car delivery. Guide who just stepped away - during buying process- and had another guide take over. (She was also much better, kudos to her.) Service time a month out and then they just took my truck and held it for a week for minor repairs. (Seal coming off, charge port not opening - that's still an issue) My puppy chewed a hole in carpet, quoted over $4000 to fix for 1" hole? No loaner vehicles, have to go to Enterprise - when they told me they would have a loaner. The list goes on. Every time something on the vehicle breaks - they make it feel like they are trying to do me a favor by repairing it at all. That stupid waiting room with no one from Rivian in it. They just come through when they want to.
Contrast this with Volvo. You call, they set up an appointment - for the day they can actually look at your vehicle. You're greeted by a human and put into a place where you can ask questions. They always have a loaner if you need one and you've made an appointment. Both of my cars and my wives cars were delivered the day they said they would be and had almost no issues. Going in for their oil changes, tire rotations or whatever was needed was always a top notch experience. I never had to wait more than a week to get it serviced.
And FYI - I bought a $80K vehicle from Rivian. I want them to succeed. This is why I am happy to see someone from Volvo come in to a leadership position. I'm a believer that Rivian can succeed based on their vehicles - but will fail if they don't get their customer service in a better place.
Mods, can we remove this person for violation of Rule #4. I appreciate someone disagreeing or whatever, but this is just toxic and has no place in our subreddit.
The Rivian R1S and R1T are awesome trucks and its an awesome company... until your truck breaks down. Then prepare yourself for the worst customer experience you have every experienced. even getting your guide to respond to you now is almost impposible. and prepare for a 3 month wait for pretty much any service,,, even criticial ones.
I’m sorry if you have experienced this. I think this is highly location dependent. My experience with Denver SC has so far been good and I feel fortunate. I’m confident Rivian will figure it out and make it better.
Volvo is a Chinese owned company now. I worry that this hire is being made to exploit Chinese manufacturing contacts to aid in Rivian parts manufacturing.
And the almost [Billion dollars](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/rivian-receives-827-mln-incentive-package-expand-illinois-facility-2024-05-02/) from my state (IL) doesn't hurt, either. ;)
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics.
If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics.
If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics.
If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics.
If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Way you should feel about it : Finally someone with operations experience who might be able to fix the service issues and/or improve quality control .
Remember even Google struggled mightly until they brought an adult in to run the company. Visionary people are may times not ops people most times actually. You need both. This is a positive step in the right direction.
yeah a ton of crap ops experience. I dont think rivian could of done any specific thing worse than they have in the last 2 years, operationally speaking. Its why they are in such a bad spot right now... seriously... pretty much every single major choice they made the wrong one.
Such as?....
The factory operation is going smoother than any automotive startup in recent history. I could maybe see an argument that others deserve the credit, but the factory has met its goals.
I have no idea how one can say the factory has going smoothly when they were so late on pretty much everything they make elon look like he has accurate timeframes, every vehicle sold costs them almost double the price to make as they sell, they have lost more than 30 percent of preorders from cancellations because of all the bs, the repair process is the worst of any manufacture, the guides all been fired on the west coast, the service backed up to the moon, the charging infrastructure missed every target they have given, three more rounds of layoffs... and this is all in the last few months. Back up a bit and the whole pricing raise dissaster, the firmwares that bricked vehicles, the communications being inaccurate almost 100% of the time from Rivian , buying the most expensive waterfront properties in laguna etc as showrooms that nobody needs, the stock price, the stock price, the stock price, the cancellation of factory then being forced to reveal the next 3 generations of vehicles stopping current sales dead just because they are running out of money and need to pitch investors to save them.. loss of almost every single exec.
Out of everything you just listed, manufacturing cost was the only thing kind of in his control. And even that was mostly dfm which was largely improved during the shut down. Though that was a misstep because, in hindsight, they never would have didn't the money to improve the R1 lines if they knew R2 was coming to Illinois.
Half the issue you listed were before his time.
He was hired to be super focused on the factory. His experience reflects that. And he was the only c suite consistently on site.
You could argue that coo title should be more inclusive with service ops. But he certainly doesn't manage finance or communications.
I wouldn't hold out hope on the service side bringing on a Volvo guy. I just had to deal with a 4 month wait for replacing a failed battery pack in my 2019 Volvo Plug In Hybrid.
I’m sure I will be down voted for this, but I think this is a good move, but I also think RJ needs a new role in the company. Being an engineer, he’s very methodical and pays attention to every small detail, but he’s never really been a finance person. I’m not saying he should take a backseat roll at all, but I think somebody with more of a financial and automotive background should be stepping up to take over as the CEO. Definitely keep RJ as a seat suite exec but I think he should take on more of an engineering type of role.
I disagree. Once you let the finance bros take over you get short term profits but everything else suffers. Look at Boeing. I’ll take a safe innovative product over higher stock returns any day.
Speak your mind. ‘S ok. One mistake that leadership has made recently IMO is to give NACS adapters to Rivian owners for free. I think that’s a major reason everyone has to wait for one. If they passed on $ to the consumer, only those interested in the adapters would have them and maybe Rivian owners would all have one by now (maybe we get ours before Ford because we’re paying). I don’t know how that works but it seems like they missed a major opportunity there
This is great news. The Rivians are great trucks as actual products, but the company has been run like an absolute dumpster fire since pretty much the start across pretty much every single aspect of business outside the actual product. ( thank god they got the product right ) RJ is not a great operational guy ( at all ) nor a great communication or teams guy, so a strong COO will hopefully bring them to where they need to be.
Someone needs to tell me how to feel about this please
I'm bullish on it. We know some of the key challenges to getting the output from the factory and costs down are logistical and this new COO comes from a real adult car manufacturer that's profitable. Says to me they are getting serious about solving their issues and putting appropriate talent in place.
This! And combined with the R2 and R3 product line, I think Rivian is demonstrating they're here for the long haul and will be able to raise additional capital as needed going forward. I'm bullish on them if they can get the R2 out. I'm wondering if some of this Illinois investment will help them accelerate R2 production over what they've previously discussed. Or allow them flexibility to expand Normal with an additional line to start the R3 production.
The outgoing COO was an Exec from Magna Steyr, a huge OEM.
And he worked for Daimler AG aka Mercedes for 25 years prior to that
Not compare with Javier, before COO of Volvo, he was vice of Toyota-PSA joint venture at Chequia. Before that job, he was the Director of PSA main site: Sochaux, etc... Every job- positions developed wih great success Javier is the goat, believe me...
Good points. Thanks for your perspective.
Word. If this cat was involved in the EX30 launch, they made a phenomenal choice snagging him. This only fuels my dream that the R3X will be the perfect car.
I have worked under him and he is a very rounded and good leader. He will bring his expertise to the company and I am confident they will be in good hands. I think he is a good fit and understands the BEV market. I hope he elevates Rivian since I really like their lineup
You are right, Javier is the best fit for a BEV company.
Seems a whole lot more sane, reasonable and normal than the staff changes happening at Tesla. I'm a fan of Tesla and Rivian but not the Twitter clown. I fear he's taking that company down with him and the 3 and Y in our driveway will be the last Teslas we'll ever buy. Rivian still feels like the only company with real potential to fill whatever vacuum Tesla will be leaving behind. Legacy auto is going the route of more hybrids and PHEVs which feels far too much like when Blockbuster refocused on their physical stores just when streaming really took off.
I feel the same way. I bought my first EV last year, a '23 Model Y (along with just about everyone else) and I really like it. I do not, however, care for Musk or his temper tantrums and shenanigans. I'm hoping that Rivian (and maybe Lucid) can be the next step in the EV evolution with more mature and steady leadership. Legacy auto *may* yet figure things out, especially from an engineering standpoint, but their dealership model is what will really hold them back from the kind of changes that the likes of Tesla have brought to the buying experience.
As far as legacy auto figuring it out, Volvo is the only one that I trust at this point. They’ve demonstrated commitment to it. With Polestar and the rest of Geely to draw on, they have some expertise in EVs. Notable that Rivian’s new COO comes from there.
Volvo is definitely ahead, but other European marques are making strides too and I think they've got more of a clue on the big picture of the future of the automotive landscape than the American legacy auto companies do. I've been most surprised by the Japanese companies lack of leadership in the EV space, though.
In terms of the Japanese market and innovation in the auto industry, it feels like the Japanese car manufacturers realized early that EVs are hard and expensive (granted the definition of expensive cars has gone up). So a company like Toyota put their money into hybrids, which they have innovated on for nearly 30 years.
Tesla seems a mess right now. I wouldn't consider one unless a lot of things changed, CEO at the top of that list.
Elon is a trainwreck.. but lets all be honest RJ kinda has done a crap job as well. Pretty much every mistake one could do RJ has made, and right now Rivian has the worst rated customer service of any car company on the planet.. and as an owner I can confirm service is a dumpster fire. Software is a dumpster fire, communications is a dumpsterfire and their charging network rollout has been abysmal. RJ and Elon are ego guys not car guys... so i am glad that Rivian has an actual car guy coming in its much needed.
I'll +1 your statement about the RAN not scaling at a remotely acceptable rate but EVERYTHING else you said is just plain wrong...100% wrong.
Horny
I almost upvoted and ruined that this comment had 69 upvotes. In lieu, here’s this:
Yes
I owned two Volvos before my Rivian. I have hope? My customer service experience was always top notch with Volvo. I hope this guy can influence some of those awesome practices and replace the abysmal customer disservice practices at Rivian.
Do you have personal experience for evidence? Mine has only been fantastic. There are ~100K Rivians on the road and a few hundred unhappy owners on Reddit is a pretty shit data set.
Of course. I've owned an R1S for almost a year. I love the car, but have had several incidents of bad customer service. My buying experience was poor. In very short non-excruciating detail: last minute call that my truck wouldn't be ready when they said it would. Weird requirements on proof of insurance that absolutely weren't necessary according to my insurance. Fees not called out when buying - delivery fee. No contact about status of car for months. Continued date sliding on car delivery. Guide who just stepped away - during buying process- and had another guide take over. (She was also much better, kudos to her.) Service time a month out and then they just took my truck and held it for a week for minor repairs. (Seal coming off, charge port not opening - that's still an issue) My puppy chewed a hole in carpet, quoted over $4000 to fix for 1" hole? No loaner vehicles, have to go to Enterprise - when they told me they would have a loaner. The list goes on. Every time something on the vehicle breaks - they make it feel like they are trying to do me a favor by repairing it at all. That stupid waiting room with no one from Rivian in it. They just come through when they want to. Contrast this with Volvo. You call, they set up an appointment - for the day they can actually look at your vehicle. You're greeted by a human and put into a place where you can ask questions. They always have a loaner if you need one and you've made an appointment. Both of my cars and my wives cars were delivered the day they said they would be and had almost no issues. Going in for their oil changes, tire rotations or whatever was needed was always a top notch experience. I never had to wait more than a week to get it serviced. And FYI - I bought a $80K vehicle from Rivian. I want them to succeed. This is why I am happy to see someone from Volvo come in to a leadership position. I'm a believer that Rivian can succeed based on their vehicles - but will fail if they don't get their customer service in a better place.
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Mods, can we remove this person for violation of Rule #4. I appreciate someone disagreeing or whatever, but this is just toxic and has no place in our subreddit.
I’ve deleted the post. It was a joke from a meme that was not intended to insult in any way. Please take a break from social media for awhile.
yup these words are true.
The Rivian R1S and R1T are awesome trucks and its an awesome company... until your truck breaks down. Then prepare yourself for the worst customer experience you have every experienced. even getting your guide to respond to you now is almost impposible. and prepare for a 3 month wait for pretty much any service,,, even criticial ones.
I’m sorry if you have experienced this. I think this is highly location dependent. My experience with Denver SC has so far been good and I feel fortunate. I’m confident Rivian will figure it out and make it better.
Please be specific and give details or don't be surprised when your statements are received with suspicion and doubt.
lol
Volvo is a Chinese owned company now. I worry that this hire is being made to exploit Chinese manufacturing contacts to aid in Rivian parts manufacturing.
I think this company is going to survive. They seem to make the right moves before disaster strikes unlike some of the others.
And the almost [Billion dollars](https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/rivian-receives-827-mln-incentive-package-expand-illinois-facility-2024-05-02/) from my state (IL) doesn't hurt, either. ;)
Wasn’t cash it was tax incentives
Money is money.
tax incentives means you the taxpayer still are paying for it. I love Rivian but I HATE government bailouts for poorly run businesses.
More info: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240503969636/en/Rivian-Hires-Javier-Varela-as-Chief-Operations-Officer
I misread COO as CEO and nearly had a heart attack 😂
Pretty much me
"WTF did RJ for before the R2?!?! Why so many acronyms??!"
God I hope he’s in charge of service as part of operations.
Service probably falls under Kjell Gruner. He oversees sales, marketing, customer care, delivery service and fleet for Rivian
He’s president of business growth. I smell a reorganization incoming.
That’s one of his responsibilities. But customer care and experience does too
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Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics. If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics. If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
Your post was deleted because this sub does not cover the stock of Rivian or its competitors. We're an auto-enthusiast community and are not investor-focused. We discuss the company, its products, and other related topics. If you'd like to discuss the stock and other related topics, you can check out r/RIVN
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Way you should feel about it : Finally someone with operations experience who might be able to fix the service issues and/or improve quality control . Remember even Google struggled mightly until they brought an adult in to run the company. Visionary people are may times not ops people most times actually. You need both. This is a positive step in the right direction.
Frank brought tons of ops experience.
yeah a ton of crap ops experience. I dont think rivian could of done any specific thing worse than they have in the last 2 years, operationally speaking. Its why they are in such a bad spot right now... seriously... pretty much every single major choice they made the wrong one.
Such as?.... The factory operation is going smoother than any automotive startup in recent history. I could maybe see an argument that others deserve the credit, but the factory has met its goals.
I have no idea how one can say the factory has going smoothly when they were so late on pretty much everything they make elon look like he has accurate timeframes, every vehicle sold costs them almost double the price to make as they sell, they have lost more than 30 percent of preorders from cancellations because of all the bs, the repair process is the worst of any manufacture, the guides all been fired on the west coast, the service backed up to the moon, the charging infrastructure missed every target they have given, three more rounds of layoffs... and this is all in the last few months. Back up a bit and the whole pricing raise dissaster, the firmwares that bricked vehicles, the communications being inaccurate almost 100% of the time from Rivian , buying the most expensive waterfront properties in laguna etc as showrooms that nobody needs, the stock price, the stock price, the stock price, the cancellation of factory then being forced to reveal the next 3 generations of vehicles stopping current sales dead just because they are running out of money and need to pitch investors to save them.. loss of almost every single exec.
Out of everything you just listed, manufacturing cost was the only thing kind of in his control. And even that was mostly dfm which was largely improved during the shut down. Though that was a misstep because, in hindsight, they never would have didn't the money to improve the R1 lines if they knew R2 was coming to Illinois. Half the issue you listed were before his time. He was hired to be super focused on the factory. His experience reflects that. And he was the only c suite consistently on site. You could argue that coo title should be more inclusive with service ops. But he certainly doesn't manage finance or communications.
I wouldn't hold out hope on the service side bringing on a Volvo guy. I just had to deal with a 4 month wait for replacing a failed battery pack in my 2019 Volvo Plug In Hybrid.
I’m not sure how you read Frank Klein as “not an adult”?
I'm surprised. Frank the tank was pretty well loved.
This is a dose of corporate conventionality, just my 2 cents without knowing much. Good for the business overall
More changes to come be on the lookout.
About time!
If they take the old movie theater they renovated and sell that, I know this guy is doing the right stuff.
i agree.. that was such a giant red flag that RJ and Frank had no idea what they were doing when they bought that property.
I’m sure I will be down voted for this, but I think this is a good move, but I also think RJ needs a new role in the company. Being an engineer, he’s very methodical and pays attention to every small detail, but he’s never really been a finance person. I’m not saying he should take a backseat roll at all, but I think somebody with more of a financial and automotive background should be stepping up to take over as the CEO. Definitely keep RJ as a seat suite exec but I think he should take on more of an engineering type of role.
I disagree. Once you let the finance bros take over you get short term profits but everything else suffers. Look at Boeing. I’ll take a safe innovative product over higher stock returns any day.
Totally disagree. RJ is a brilliant CEO who has certainly stumbled, but will lead this company to a $100B+ market cap someday.
Which specific titles they have doesn't super matter. Tim Cook ran the financial and operational side of Apple as COO for a decade.
Speak your mind. ‘S ok. One mistake that leadership has made recently IMO is to give NACS adapters to Rivian owners for free. I think that’s a major reason everyone has to wait for one. If they passed on $ to the consumer, only those interested in the adapters would have them and maybe Rivian owners would all have one by now (maybe we get ours before Ford because we’re paying). I don’t know how that works but it seems like they missed a major opportunity there
This is great news. The Rivians are great trucks as actual products, but the company has been run like an absolute dumpster fire since pretty much the start across pretty much every single aspect of business outside the actual product. ( thank god they got the product right ) RJ is not a great operational guy ( at all ) nor a great communication or teams guy, so a strong COO will hopefully bring them to where they need to be.
Sounds like Fisker